- Machina Kicks, Accuses APC of Fraudulently Substituting His Name With Lawan
After a long drawn legal battle over the Yobe North Senatorial ticket, the Supreme Court, on Monday, declared Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, as the authentic senatorial candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC).
In a majority judgment delivered on Monday, the apex court granted the appeal filed by the APC against Bashir Machina’s candidature.
Delivering the judgment, three out of a five-member panel agreed with the position of the APC that the suit at the trial court ought not to have commenced via an originating summons since it contained allegations of fraud.
“The bedrock of the suit shows that there were allegations of fraudulent practices against the appellants,” Centus Nweze said.
“That the 1st respondent accused the APC of fraudulently substituting his name with that of Lawan.
“Where there is an allegation of fraud it should not be commenced by an originating summons.
“There was a need to call witnesses to prove allegations of fraud.”
It would however be recalled that Lawan had contested for the presidential ticket of the APC, coming third behind the winner, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
While Lawan participated in APC presidential primary, Machina also contested the Yobe North Senatorial District primary, and was declared the winner after pulling 289 votes at the primary election supervised by the INEC.
But the leadership of the APC forwarded the name of the senate president. This later degenerated into a court case as Machina had insisted that he remains the validly nominated senatorial candidate of the APC in the district.
